We could not be more excited for all of you to meet the three authors who are joining the Swoon Reads family for Season 6!

The world needs more diverse books, and the wonderfully relatable characters of Jen Wilde's What Happens at SupaCon immediately jumped out at us. We fell for them instantly, and sending them off to a nerdy fandom convention was just icing on the cake.

What inspired you to write What Happens at SupaCon?

Lots of things! I thought
setting a story at a con would be tons of fun to write, allowing me to go into
full fangirl mode and create characters I could relate to. And then reading
Holly’s post about her SDCC adventure really made me take the idea more
seriously. I’d also been spending a lot of time reading awesome blogs like We
Need Diverse Books, Disability in KidLit, DiversifYA, and of course the great
posts about diversity right here on the Swoon Says blog. I knew I wanted this
story to be inclusive of different races and sexualities, and also star an Autistic
girl as one of the main protagonists. I’m Autistic, and I’m really tired of
seeing the same old tropes and harmful stereotypes in media and society as a
whole, so I decided to do something about it in the best way I know how:
writing. Stories bring us together and help us empathise with people we might
not normally understand, and as someone who’s never really felt understood,
that’s invaluable.

What is your favorite moment in the book?

I have a lot of favorite
moments, but the first one that comes to mind is the scene in the zombie live
action maze with Taylor and Jamie. I also love the scene with Charlie and
Alyssa in the arcade. To me, both those moments are fun, sweet, geeky, and
exciting all at once. And they were a blast to write!

What are your favorite fandoms?

Definitely Supernatural.
The SPN Family is awesome. And Back To The Future. And The Walking Dead. And
tons more! Really, I’m a supporter of all fandoms—anything that brings people
together and promotes fun, geekery, and camaraderie is awesome!

Being a lifelong fangirl,
I’d always been curious about conventions. Last year I finally worked up the
courage to go to one, and I’ve been hooked ever since! Earlier this year I
cosplayed as Marty McFly from my favorite movie ever, Back To The Future, and
met the one and only Christopher Lloyd. I definitely drew from that experience
when writing about Taylor’s SupaCon experience, especially her love of Queen
Firestone. I’d love to cosplay more in the future, maybe as Jessica Jones or
Carol from The Walking Dead.

This is going to sound so
cheesy, but my husband makes me swoon all the time. Recently, he came home with
two Funko Pop toys of Sam and Dean in their FBI suits because he saw them while
he was out and knew I would love them. Little things like that, that show
someone just how well you know them, are totally swoonworthy to me. Other
things that make me swoon include: people who are unapologetically themselves,
Sam Winchester’s puppy dog eyes, Ruby Rose, pugs, and Pacey Witter (especially
that time when Joey wanted to be an artist so he bought her a wall to paint. A
WALL! *dies*).